Out of Competition

OCCUPATION: DREAMLAND



Garrett Scott, Ian Olds

Country of production: USA
Year: 2005
Language: English
Mins: 78

Production company: GreenHouse Pictures
Producer: Garrett Scott
Cinematography: Ian Olds, Garrett Scott
Editing: Ian Olds
Sound: Jim Dawson

Source: GreenHouse Pictures
601 West 26TH Street, Suite 1120
New York, NY 10001, USA
Tel.: 212 331-8888
Fax: 212 343-2134
e-mail: nancy@greenhousepictures.com
www.greenhousepictures.com


This melancholy portrait of a squad of American soldiers deployed in the doomed Iraqi city of Falluja during the winter of 2004 reveals the city’s waning stability, leading to its portrayal by the US military as a “terrorist safe-haven,” and ending in a series of military assaults that effectively destroyed it. Occupation: Dreamland chronicles the escalating tensions between its two main characters: the squad (part of the 82nd Airborne) and the city. Speaking different languages and holding distinct worldviews, the two antagonists collide repeatedly. A sense of unease grows as the chain of misunderstanding and mistrust tightens. Daylight patrols on bustling downtown streets turn from casual conversation to confusing firefights while nighttime raids reveal a local populace caught in the middle of insurgency and counterinsurgency. The filmmakers lived with the unit 24/7, giving voice to soldiers held under a strict code of authority as they cope with an ambiguous, often lethal environment. The result is a revealing look at Army life, operations and the complexity of American war in the 21st century.

Garrett Scott is a writer and filmmaker who was featured prominently by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the "20 new faces in film to watch" in 2002. His directorial debut, Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story, premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. Cul de Sac also screened at numerous other festivals before being acquired for broadcast by the Sundance Channel in 2004, and ARTE-France in 2005. In addition to Occupation: Dreamland, Garrett is working on a documentary about city politics in San Francisco in the 1970's.

Ian Olds is the editor and co-writer of Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story, which premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired for broadcast by The Sundance Channel in 2004 and ARTE-France in 2005. He is also the director of the short narrative film, Two Men, which will premier at the 2005 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival as one of only five American films chosen for International Competition. Ian was awarded the departmental research fellowship in cinematography and will receive his MFA from Columbia University's film division in 2005.

SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 2005 AT 2.45 PM. / GALLERY THEATRE
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2005 AT 7.15 PM. / GALLERY THEATRE